(Yicai) March 30 -- China continues to achieve historic breakthroughs in innovative drug development, with domestic drugmakers seeing relevant out-licensing agreements in the first quarter of this year reach almost half of last year's total.

Chinese drugmakers have penned out-licensing agreements for innovative drugs worth over USD60 billion so far this year, according to data released by an official from the National Medical Products Administration at the biopharmaceutical industry sub-forum of the ZGC Forum Annual Conference held in Beijing from March 25 through yesterday.

In comparison, more than 150 innovative drug out-licensing agreements worth over USD130 billion were signed last year, both achieving new records, according to the NMPA. The agency also approved a record high of 76 such drugs.

The surge in deals so far this year highlights the international recognition of the innovative drug research and development capabilities of Chinese pharmaceutical companies. In addition, the NMPA has approved 10 new drugs as of March 27, eight of which were original innovative drugs developed by Chinese firms.

To provide a favorable environment for innovative drugmakers to grow, Chinese watchdogs have been improving the country's system to stimulate innovation based on the rule of law, while aiming at efficient supervision throughout the entire life cycle of drugs to ensure industrial safety, the official said. They have also focused on strengthening regulatory capacity and enhancing the quality and efficiency of new drug review and approval processes to better serve developers, the person added.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev